Chapter 1

Physiology of Exercise in the United States—It’s Past, It’s Future

EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGYTheory and Application to Fitness and Performance,

6th edition

Scott K. Powers & Edward T. Howley

European Heritage

• Three physiologists received the Nobel Prize for work related to muscle or muscular exercise– A.V. Hill

• Heat production during muscle contraction and recovery

– Otto Meyerhof • Relationship of O2 consumption and lactic acid in muscle

– August Krogh • Function of the capillary circulation

Harvard Fatigue Laboratory

• Focal point in the development of exercise physiology in the United States– D.B. Dill directed the lab from its opening in

1927 to its closing in 1947

• Research in exercise and environmental physiology– Basis of much of what we know today

Physical Fitness

• A popular topic today• Possible careers:

– Physical Education– Physiology of Exercise– Health Education– Nutrition– Physical Therapy– Athletic Training– Medicine

Public Health Service

• In 1980, listed “physical fitness and exercise” as one of the fifteen areas of concern related to improving the country’s overall health.

Civil War until the First World War

• Physical education primarily concerned with fitness

• Many physical education leaders were trained in medicine

• Dr. Dudley Sargent – Hired by Harvard in 1879– Set up physical training programs with individual

exercise prescriptions

World War I and World War II

• Large numbers of draftees failed the induction exams due to mental and physical defects

• Physical programs began to resemble pre-military training programs

1950’s

• Autopsies of young soldiers of Korean War showed significant coronary artery disease has already developed

• Hans Kraus showed the American children performed poorly on a muscular fitness test compared to European

• President’s Council on Youth Fitness (1955)

• AAHPERD Youth Fitness Test (1957)

John F. Kennedy

• “The Soft American” in Sports Illustrated (1960)

“For the physical vigor of our citizens is one of American’s most precious resources. If we waste and neglect this resource, if we allow it to dwindle and grow soft, then we will destroy much of our

ability to meet the great and vital challenges which confront our people. We will be unable to realize our

full potential as a nation.”

During Kennedy’s Term

• Council’s name changed to the “President’s Council on Physical Fitness”

• Nixon administration changed it to the current name “President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports”

1980

• American Alliance for Health Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) published the Health-Related Physical Fitness Test Manual– Performance testing

– Fitness testing

Epidemiological Studies

• On health status of the population underscored the fact that degenerative diseases relate to poor health habits.– High-fat diet, smoking, inactivity

• 1970s, an increased use of exercise tests to diagnose heart disease

• Large corporations developed “executive” fitness programs, which evolved into today’s “Corporate Fitness” programs

Undergraduate and Graduate Study

• Growth in the number of exercise physiology laboratories in the 1950s and 1960s– Opportunities for graduate and undergraduate

education– From physical education to exercise physiology

• Graduates from these laboratories contributed to the field– Research productivity– Journals and professional societies

Translation of Exercise Science to the Consumer

• Demand for correct information and programs about physical activity and health– University and college physical education

departments have developed areas of study in exercise physiology and fitness

• The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)– Developed certification programs to establish a

standard of knowledge and skill for practitioners